Brave New Love by Paula Guran

for you to play with.”
    Gabe struggled to get out of my grip but didn’t bother swinging. He knew I could hurt him if I really wanted to. Realizing I’d done enough stupid things for one day, I turned to
leave.
    “I think you need a snack, Dylan,” Gabe called after me, but I tuned him out.
    In a matter of seconds, all the events of the morning became incredibly clear. For years I’d been stealing things for the group, making sure everyone had what they needed. Today, for the
first time, I took something for myself. And it was the dumbest thing I’d ever done. There was no way we could actually keep her here for long, and, if we did, girls didn’t fall for
boys who stole them.
    •  •  •
    The woman with the toddler on her hip escorted me to a cabin near another building that was almost exactly the same size. The one ahead of me looked neater though, at least from
the outside.
    “Where are you taking me?” I asked. The threat of some unnamable thing hung around my periphery but never came into focus.
    “Don’t worry honey. No one here means you any harm.”
    “Is that what you say to everyone you kidnap?” I asked, not quite as angrily as I’d intended.
    “We’ve never taken anyone before. And Dylan’s usually smarter than this.” She sighed and shook her head. “In the meantime, you might as well get acquainted with the
other girls.”
    “Huh?” I asked.
    Without explanation she walked up the wooden steps of the cabin, across the tiny porch, and knocked on the door. The angry girl from before answered the door. “Seriously?”
    “Where else would we put her?” my guide said in a warm, pleading voice.
    The angry girl begrudgingly opened the door. My guide motioned for me to enter and I followed her into the small house that was really little more than a box.
    “This is the girls’ place,” my guide explained. “This is Monica,” she said, motioning to the angry girl, “and that’s Alicia and Tanya.”
    I looked around and noticed two girls smiling at me from their bunk beds. Clearly they didn’t mind the company. The woman pointed to where the bathroom was in the back, pulled out some
sheets that were obviously stolen and set them on a bed that was intended to be mine.
    “Play nice,” she said and left. I was alone with the three girls. I looked around the room and sat on the edge of my bed, not sure what else to do.
    “So,” Alicia started, “how are you liking it so far?”
    Was she serious? Who liked being taken from their home?
    “I see clothes haven’t changed at all,” Tanya added, looking me up and down. It was true. I’d pretty much worn the same dark slacks and loose shirts for as long as I
remembered. The girls were wearing similar clothes, stolen from who knows where. But they’d dyed the shirts, stained them with grass or something. On purpose. “I’m not as brave as
Monica or Dylan. I could never go out there and see it for myself.”
    I stood and picked up the sheets and tried to process what they were saying, which was a little difficult. Their words seemed fast. Everyone seemed fast here. Quick hands and sentences wherever
I turned, disorienting me more than the fact that I’d been taken.
    “Monica’s so sly. She never gets caught,” Alicia said, her voice full of admiration.
    I looked to Monica who was tying knots in a piece of rope and looking very pleased with her admirers. I felt for a moment that if I could see the reverse of myself in a mirror, she would be it:
tall, lean and dark, and very focused. I was too soft, too short, too passive to live here.
    I shook my head. It felt fuzzy, which happened from time to time. I started putting my bed together. There was no way to fight being here at the moment. In fact, if there was a way to fight at
all I wasn’t sure how to go about it.
    As I worked on tucking in a corner, I found my arm suddenly twisted behind my back. I cried out.
    “Monica, what are you doing?” Tanya shouted.
    “Listen,